Economic Causes of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: A Panel Data Analysis for the 2000s

We use under-explored municipality level datasets to assess the recent economic and policy determinants of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. We estimate yearly panel data models (from 2002 to 2009) for 663 municipalities in the region. The results show that recent deforestation is increasing with economic activity and is also affected by economic incentives, measured by fluctuations in agricultural product and wood prices. Moreover, we document that the increasing enforcement efforts of the Brazilian environmental police (IBAMA) were effective in reducing deforestation rates. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013